Page:Select historical documents of the Middle Ages.djvu/121

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DIALOGUE CONCERNING THE EXCHEQUER.
101

writing of the roll. But now let us proceed concerning the other matters.

M. When, therefore, all those things shall have been noted down which are either fixed or are to be computed by writ of the ting, or by custom of the exchequer,—then the account is left unfinished, as it were, and they turn to other things; for "and is quit" or "and he owes," by which, indeed, the account is said to be finished, is not written in the yearly roll until satisfaction shall have been given for every thing that is contained in the summons; the cause of which proceeding will be clear enough from what is to follow. After the account for the body of the county—that is, for the principal farm, which, as has been said, is left unfinished until the end,—a moderate space being left, the account is put down of the old farm of the county; that is, whatever by any chance had remained over from the previous year: but it shall only be thus if the sheriff who then served shall have been changed. But if the same one continue also in this year, he shall make satisfaction for the old farm before beginning an account of the new; and the old one shall be distinctly and diligently written down in the beginning, and afterwards the new one. For these things, know that the changed sheriff of the old farm is to be summoned like any other of the debtors; not for a part of it but for the whole, because it is a farm the payment of which ought not to be put off. But it suffices to send a summons for a debt of the old farm, for which he is bounded who is still serving, under this form of words: "whatever thou dost owe from the old farm and the new." Concerning which enough has been said above in the chapter on summonses.

X. Concerning escheats and trespass-lands, or, as we more generally say, concerning purprestures and escheats.

After these things, moreover, a space of about six lines being left, there follows the account concerning escheats and trespass-lands, or, as we more usually say, "concerning purprestures and escheats." In the middle of the line, indeed, is made a heading in capital letters, "concerning purprestures and escheats "; but at the beginning of the